Shield for button-holes



(No Model.)

F. E. HEINIG. SHIELD FOR BUTTON HOLES.

No. 442,622. Patented Dec. 16, 1890.

Qmi'tmaooeo Suva/141606 atter/14mg UNITED STATES ATENT Trice.

FREDERICK E. HEINIG, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

SHIELD FOR BUTTON-HOLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 442,622, dated December 16, 1890.

Application filed December 28, 1889- Serial No. 335,189. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK E. I'lEINIG, a citizen of theUnited States,residin at Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shields for Button-Holes and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to that class of devices called eyelets, which are inserted in button-holes, string-holes, &c., in cloth, leather, or other flexible material to protect their edges against wear.

The object of the invention is to provide a metallic facing or binding to the edges of goods around a button-hole, and yet to leave the said edges sufficiently flexible to be readily bent as required in buttoning and unbuttoning; and to this end my invention consists in a button-hole shield formed of a series of parts to be arranged in service as hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 represents a large button-hole in a portion of a button-hole strip provided with my shield. Fig. II is a side elevation of a single member of the shield. Fig. III represents the eyelet-blank as punched from sheet metal and before it is bent for service as a single member of the shield. Fig. IV shows a modification of one member of the shield.

5 and 6 represent the two wings of one member of my shield folded to face each other by making a bend at 7. The bend 7 has sufficient length to separate the wings 5 and 6 far enough to readily admit the edge of the cloth or leather to which the shield is to be attached. The inner faces of the wings are concave, so that their edges may buryinto the cloth when pressed together thereon and hold firmly. This internal concavity also produces external convexity in the thin sheet metal of which the shield is made, thus giving a neat rounded finish to the face of each member. Each of these members is very much narrower than a side of the button-hole or than the circumference of the arc of the enlarged end S of the hole. 9 represents a series of these members secured in a button-hole ready forservice. These members fixed around the edge of a button-hole form a shield therefor. One member is not a shield when taken alone, and, as a button-hole is but a single eye, enough of these members to surround the hole combine to form a shield therefor. The cloth, leather, or other similarly-flexible goods serves to unite the various members attached to it to form a shield around the edge .of the button-hole, and, its characteristic of flexibility being thus secured for the benefit of the metallic shield to enable it, when considered as a whole, to bend Without being resisted by the stiffness of the metal composing its members, the combination of the said members with the goods becomes evident. I may make these members of different forms to adapt them to different situations or for appearance sake; but to adapt a single form of member or clip to serve both for the sides and end of the button-hole I make the middle portion 7 narrower than the wings 5 6. Clips thus formed may be placed close side by side around the end of the hole, the middle portion 7 covering the edge of the goods, while the Wing portions 5 6 cover the faces, on one of Which the button rests and on the other the portion to which the button is attached rests, and consequently where there is most wear. Clips of this form are also particularly well adapted to shield the face of the goods along the sides of the hole, while by their narrow middle portions 7 they permit'thc amount of flexibility required along this region when the cloth is bent to permit the button to pass through the hole.

As this shield is adapted for service on all articlessuch as bags, shoes, overalls, &c. which are subject to rough usage, the strip of goods along the edge of such articles containing button-holes and commonly called the button-hole strip may be provided as an article of manufacture, or it may be made of the goods forming the article itself.

Fig. IV shows a modification, in which the corners of the wings of the members are bent inward to form spurs to engage the cloth or leather, the faces being flat. If a single memher were enlarged and curved so as to serve alone as a guard for the wearing end of the button-hole, it would not be my invention; or if a single wire were bent into many deep ble material having button-holes in it provided with the metallic shields described, each shield consisting of a series of separate metallic clips shaped as described and secured side by side to the cloth along the sides and around the end of the button-hole, and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FREDERICK E. IIEINIG. Vr'itnesses:

LOGAN G. PATTON, R. M. INGALLS. 

